It is impossible to achieve long-term goals without having short-term goals to supplement it. What you want to accomplish after twenty, thirty or forty years would only be possible when you go through a series of activities all through the years that drive you towards the bigger goal. Here lies the importance of short-term goals.  While focusing on the long-term goals is essential, it is equally important to plan for accomplishing many smaller things that ultimately contribute to achieving the bigger goal. That is the reason that you should have both short and long-term goal for life. Short-term objectives pave the way for reaching the destination and with each small success; you gain the confidence of moving in the right direction that would help to realize the long-term goals.

Charting your way in a defined manner

Short-term goals are important because you set these with an eye on achieving the long-term objectives, and in a way, short-term goals take you to the ultimate destination. In the absence of short-term targets, you could become rudderless and even lose sight of the more significant purposes because of the stretched timeline. The goals that you set for shorter duration help you to cross the smaller hurdles with ease and provide the guidelines about how you could reach the final target, still many years away. That you are on the right course motivates you to move ahead faster.

Avoid procrastination with short-term goals

The most significant advantage of short-term goals is that it helps to avoid procrastination. Since the long-term goals take time to achieve, there are chances that people would tend to fall victims of procrastination that could become a habit and create a distraction.  When things start delaying, it could have a cascading effect that leads to more delays and eventually you would find yourself thrown out of track. By setting short-term goals, you achieve small things on a continuous basis that helps to maintain the momentum necessary to take you through the long time span towards the goals that you have set for long-term.

Align it with long-term goals

Short-term goals are derivatives of long-term goals. Although the activities might apparently seem to have no connection to the long-term goals, it contributes and helps to move closer to the ultimate target.  Only after you have set the long-term goals that you can plan for the short-term goals. There is an intimate connection between the two types of goals that you must exploit to your advantage. Start breaking down the long-term goals into smaller activities and then group the activities as subsets of the larger picture.

Instead of setting long-term goals with the assumption that you would work for it, you have to lay the stepping-stones that would show the way. The short-term goals are the stepping-stones that form the pathway towards long-term goals that keep you alert about being on track. As you can visualize the lengthy journey, you can work out the most efficient way of accomplishing the goals without ever losing sight of it.